Alberigo's history of the Council is compared here to Sarpi's Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, the first history of the Council of Trent, written by an embittered critic of the Vatican (and the target of assassination attempts prompted by the Vatican). In the case of Trent, historical knowledge was hard to come by. Sarpi had access to some of the Council Fathers who were critical of the proceedings. Pallavicini's riposte was based on Vatican documents. But after that there was an embargo on the Tridentine debates, which were published only in the 20th Century. The Bologna proceedings of 1547 first saw the light in 1950 and following years! See Jedin, Kirche des Glaubens, Kirche der Geschichte, vol. II. Meanwhile, the Vatican confiscated the interpretation of Trent and ensured that many of the creative theological impulses of that Council had no future.

In the case of Vatican II, however, there is a collective memory of the atmosphere and promise of the Council. My own first theological writing was a long essay on the forthcoming Council, written in 1962 at the prompting of Br. Gavin in the North Monastery, Christian Brothers School, Cork, full of photos and press cuttings (and unfortunately lost). There was no doubt in anyone's mind throughout the years of the Council and its aftermath that something decisively new had taken place.

But happily, the historical records of Vatican II are open to all. Not only the Council Texts but the full proceedings have been published. The three volume German commentary composed by Ratzinger, Rahner and others fixes clearly how the Council was understood at the time. Just as Sinn Fein is unable to rewrite the murder campaign of the IRA as a patriotic civil rights struggle, thanks to documentation such as the crushing book, Lost Lives, so those who have betrayed Vatican II will not be able to cover over their crime by historical falsification.

Even if Vatican II is destined to remain an anomalous blip on the radar screen of history, it will remain a subversive memory to trouble the sleep of reaction for decades to come.